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Facebook started out as thefacebook.com, which was intended to be a social networking site for college students.

Originally, it was much more low-key than MySpace: A user needed an official school e-mail address to join. To a registered user, the interface worked somewhat similarly (a user could view everyone in his network, but would have to add friends from other networks to view their profiles). Because it came out in spring 2004, anyone who had graduated from college in 2003 or earlier was essentially forbidden from becoming a member, due to their lack of an official school account. Schools were also added piecemeal, so your friend might invite you to join, but find that your college wasn't in the site's database yet.

In 2006, regional, corporate and high school networks were established, leading to an outcry amongcollege students, who felt that Facebook was becoming another MySpace; a counter-contingent appeared who disagreed. This outcry only intensified when the whole "official college e-mail address" thing was abolished later in the year and anyone with an e-mail address was allowed to join. The complaints later became Hilarious in Hindsight, as now it's MySpace that's trying to copy Facebook's every move, ever since it became Deader Than Disco.

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As of 2014, Facebook remains one of the most popular (and actually still more low-key; it hasn't taken as much flak as whipping boy MySpace) networking sites out there. More and more sites are adding Facebook Like buttons on their pages, making it look as if Facebook is taking over the Internet. It lacks most of MySpace's profile-customization options; no sparklies or rainbow-colored fonts allowed. This may be to Facebook's benefit, as it creates a more professional feeling. However, there are a huge number of applications that one can add to one's profile, for anything from horoscopes to celebrity-lookalike pictures. As of now, it has over 2 billion users.

There are also a number of entries for fictional characters, such as Michelle Dessler from 24.

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Facebook's layout has gone through several major changes, each one triggering a mass epidemic of complaining. Ironically, each new update has people rushing to defend the old layout, deciding it was not so bad after all despite laying into that one prior. In addition to this, the media and some more tech-savvy members of the public have found a place to whip Facebook where it hurts the most: privacy. Over time, Facebook has implemented different levels of privacy for its user profiles (while urging people to use caution before posting any compromising photos or rants).

It has led to the practice of "Facebook stalking"looking at someone's profile, status updates and photo uploads to find out more about their lives (rather than, y'know, just talking to them directly). An especially useful tool if you either are curious about some stranger who has ninety-seven mutual friends, enjoy being a "detective", or are a Psycho Ex Boy-/Girlfriend (or, indeed, a thief, as Facebook offers great insight into when people are not at home, while also often giving enough information to find where that home is). Granted, however, it wouldn't be a concern if users simply didn't post this kind of info in the first place.

Facebook entered the stock market on May 18, 2012, at 11 a.m. EDT, under the abbreviation FB, with an IPO of about US$38 billion, which it broke even at the end of that day. Even after the purchase, Mark Zuckerberg has control over the entire company. This move has made him a multi-billionaire and he coincidentally married his longtime girlfriend in a secret wedding just days after. But Facebook also lost a lot of money due to the falling stocks, and a few lawsuits have happened that they'll need to deal with, in addition to an investigation by the U.S. Senate.

This Web site contains examples of:

Artifact Title: The term "facebook" once referred to printed directories that colleges hand out to students featuring everyone's photo and contact info — essentially what Facebook originally aimed to imitate. Not so much now that it's open to the general public and has so many other features. Meanwhile, its massive popularity has caused a real-life inversion of this trope: Nobody would refer to such a publication as a "facebook" now (assuming they are even printed at all anymore).

Facebook's announcement of a new policy has stuck some users as this. The new rules would ban anything that "promotes violence" against women. While this sounds like a good idea many have criticized the rather vague and loose wording as well as the fact that is does not offer the same protections for men. The fact that it bases its judgments and training solely on feminist claims has also drawn some attention.

Early Installment Weirdness: Definitely. In its very earliest form, the website was restricted to a tiny handful of universities, and explicitly designed as a tool for socializing on university campuses. It also didn't have status updates for the first five years of its existence, and didn't add a "Like" button until the year after that; by now, both features have largely taken over the website, even though the website started to gain popularity many years before either of them were introduced.

Flame War: Whether it's by commenting on other users' pages, trolling the walls of groups they don't like, or posting scathing rants on every conceivable subject, Facebook users are never at a loss for ways to start one.

Flanderization: A website being Flanderized, you may ask? But this website is now seen as something of a "lets-free-for-all" type site.

G.I.F.T.: Mostly averted, since the site requires users to use their real names. But that doesn't stop some people from being Jerkasses anywayadditionally, Facebook isn't always that vigilant, so a few users can slip past the censors using fake names and cause trouble.

Glurge Addict: You probably have at least one of these in your circle.

Happiness is Mandatory: See the Quotes page. It's the main reason why you merely "Ignore" or "Not Now" unwanted friend requests, or are unable to "Dislike" a post.

Not only that, but Facebook has a tendency to filter posts that you might not like. Made painfully clear in August 2014 when there were plenty of people posting about riots and protests in Ferguson, Missouri, but all anyone saw were feel-good posts about the "ice bucket challenge."

Mitigating this somewhat, in 2015 they added a more diverse range of ways to respond to a story without commenting, allowing the user to select from a range of emoticons representing "love", "haha", "yay", "wow", "sad" and "angry". None of these generally see as much use as the standard "like" button, but at least the option's there.

Interface Screw: Every damn time they change the look, something is done differently.

Loose Lips: Two types of people who love Facebook? Private investigators and divorce lawyers. People forget that often anyone can read what they put online, although upping your privacy settings can reduce (but not eliminate) the risks involved. Remember: It's a bulletin board, not a diary.

Law enforcement as well, who have been using the site in the last few years to track down criminals.

The ATF, and likely the other US Federal agencies, leave the site unblocked on their network for explicitly that reason.

If you post detailed information about when and where you plan on traveling for your vacation, and your address, and don't have strict privacy settings ... well, don't be surprised when your house gets burgled while you're away.

Moral Guardians: More than a few concerns raised by this group, including privacy and other things...

Aside from the flame wars people start by commenting on more sensitive topics, friending/defriending, personal posts, comments and notes are taken very seriously, to the point where defriending someone is considered equivalent to spitting in his face. People expect to get sympathy for every problem with their lives there, so simple relationship breakups and accidentally burning a pizza become equivalent to Armageddon. Some users go so far as to report harassment if one decides to decline participation in an event, and will flat-out block you for simply not going to the said event.

Remember, any relationship with another human being is not official until it's Facebook Official®. So if you post your wedding photos and haven't listed yourself as "married to [person Y]", it hasn't strictly happened yet until you have.

When you Unfriend someone you know personally, it heavily implies that you no longer want to be their friend in real life either.

Sickeningly Sweethearts: You know at least one couple who send syrupy messages to each other in public on the site.

And you likely know a married couple who share a Facebook page with a name something like "Billyandmaria Smithperson". And unless they say who's posting, you can't tell which one is. In reality, someone probably got caught cheating.

Socialization Bonus: Many Facebook games are downright impossible to play alone, because the game refuses to give you items which are required for certain quests. Instead, you must beg for them from your friends, which requires either alienating your real-life friends with endless "Send me 20 Bear Asses!" requests or making "friends" with perfect strangers who happen to already play the game (and hope that they do not quit playing or run amok on your wall).

The Tetris Effect: Spending too much time on Facebook can lead to seeing phantom notifications in the corner of your screen, or looking for the "like" button on forum posts.

Unperson: The concept of "unfriending"  removing someone from the list of "friends"  taken to another level, where a former friend is also blocked from seeing the blocker's profile or otherwise contacting him/her via Facebook. Those who are blocked are virtually "invisible" to each other. On top of this, the event itself goes without any notification — you'll never notice that someone has unfriended you unless you (A) memorize the number of friends you have and see that it has gone down, or (B) go looking specifically for that person's profile, and fail to find it.

Unusual Euphemism: Any time a profile says "Self Employed," there's a very good chance it really means unemployed, especially when their supposed actual business isn't mentioned anywhere. Also, "School of Hard Knocks" under Education usually means "dropout".

Troll: At times sadly present. Thankfully there are many options to shut them up (reporting to the higher-ups, deleting the posts, removing from the group/page, or downright blocking to remove them out of sight).

We Don't Suck Anymore: In 2018, they began airing ads saying that they know that what was great about them has been messed up by spam and fake news and so-forth, but they're cleaning all that up, so don't worry.

Your Cheating Heart: Got a paramour on Facebook you're hiding from your partner? Sorry, they're going to find out eventually. There is no such thing as privacy on this site. The large number of joint accounts for couples might be an attempt for one partner to prevent philandering by another.

Examples of Facebook in popular culture:

Film

In Gravity, Matt mentions that "half of North America just lost their Facebook" after space debris knocks out communications.

In She's Out of My League, Devon and Kirk mention Facebook in a conversation, and Devon says he has 37 friends.

The Social Network is about the history of Facebook, although Zuckerberg says it's inaccurate.

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